Fairmont City Manager presents five year strategic plan to council members

Yahoo

29-01-2025

Jan. 29—FAIRMONT — City Manager Travis Blosser presented a draft vision of Fairmont in 2030 during a work session with City Council on Tuesday.
"By 2030, Fairmont will be known as a modern, inclusive city that respects and values its heritage," Blosser said, reading from his presentation. He added the city is known as a center for technology and education through the High Technology Park and its two higher education institutions.
"The City will continue to live up to that expectation with investments and focuses in these areas," he said.
Blosser's plan identifies six focus areas for the City to develop. Economic revitalization and expansion, efficient City services, modern facilities and infrastructure, a high quality municipal workforce, community safety and building partnerships and collaborations with a variety of organizations, agencies and stakeholders.
Blosser took input from councilmembers during the meeting. Among the issues councilmembers wanted to see addressed were an enforceable ethics code, how the City will use grant matching programs, demolition and empty lot development, signage and others.
Some of the goals the City wants to pursue in achieving progress in its six focus areas are to streamline the business license tax, complete the West Fork River Rail Trail project, overhaul the city's website and provide improved digital interfaces for residents. Other goals include improved City infrastructure such as public parks and City buildings, new programs to train, develop and retain employees, implement body worn cameras for City police officers and find some way to work with the Division of Highways to repair the city's roads in a more streamlined manner. That's just a fraction of the total goals described in the document provided by the City.
Council members greeted Blosser's strategic vision positively.
"This was a concerted effort that looks to the future and expands our services and what we do," Mayor Anne Bolyard said. "We're looking to external sources to provide that funding. So we're being good stewards for the resources and leveraging that and expanding our impact without passing any burden to the citizens we serve."
During the regular council session, Councilmember Kandi Nuzum thanked Blosser for his work and aggressively setting goals for the City to achieve. She said the things Blosser wants to implement would help make Fairmont greater. She also thanked City Grant Writer Rene Graves for her work seeking outside government funding to help the City achieve its goals.
The state of the Gateway Connecter also came up during the regular session meeting. Blosser said the City plans to repair the potholes on that roadway over the next couple of weeks. However, asphalt companies aren't producing asphalt right now, and Public Works isn't a fan of using cold patches, which are not as durable as traditional asphalt application. Because of that, Blosser said he expects any fix will be a temporary fix, at least until an opportunity to use asphalt arises in warmer weather.
The City also approved a water infrastructure project with the City of Pleasant Valley, which already gets its water from Fairmont. The work will service parts of a main distribution line which causes a significant amount of issues for the City's water department. The funding for the project will come from Pleasant Valley's American Rescue Plan Act money.
"It's important to supply water everywhere to our customers," Blosser said. "Water is life."
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